Are Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC the same?
If not, then what are all the differences between Lightroom 6 vs. Lightroom CC?

…so we thought it was time to write a new article about this topic.

Here’s the answer, with the differences put simply:

Lightroom 6 is the core program running on your desktop – the new version that follows Lightroom 5, with significant features and improvements added since LR5. Adobe is offering two options to customers, and the Lightroom 6 route is a perpetual license – basically standalone static software. The updates that Lightroom 6 users receive going forward will be for bug fixes and new camera and lens profiles only, but not new feature upgrades that Lightroom CC customers will receive on an ongoing basis.

The long-awaited Adobe Lightroom 6/CC began shipping this week, and has got some folks pretty excited about the new features and capabilities… There’s a long list of them given further below, but some of the highlights include much improved performance, facial recognition, photo merge for both HDR and panorama, advanced video slideshows, improved web galleries, new Pet Eye tool, touch-enabled PC support, plus GPU acceleration and native 64-bit architecture on Windows and Mac.

One big change is the naming difference and what you get with the two options (Lightroom 6 vs. Lightroom CC). You can still buy a standalone perpetual version as before (either full or upgrade from an older release) – the product is then called Lightroom 6 and it will still receive bug fixes and new camera/lens additions, but will not get ongoing new feature updates and does not have access to online LR features and apps such as Lightroom Mobile and Lightroom web.

SAN JOSE, Calif.—April 1, 2015—Following a recent software trend for skipping version numbers, reliable sources indicate that Adobe Systems will be foregoing the long-anticipated Acrobat 12 and leaping hundreds of releases higher instead.

When reached for comment, Founder John Adobe confirmed the rumors. “Hey, everyone thought it was the cat’s pajamas when old Microsoft skipped a version going from Windows 8 to the future Windows 10,” Adobe said. “Well forget about it, you ain’t seen nothing yet – we’re going to take that little bump and shoot it to the moon!”

So what in fact will the next release of Acrobat be called? Adobe himself was reluctant to give further details, but a leaked company document clearly indicates the next release will be dubbed Acrobat 600 – leap­frogging a full 588(!) revisions over the widely-expected Acrobat XII.

Why Acrobat 600?

When confronted with the internal memo, Mr. Adobe relented. “Okay, you got me,” he said. “We’re calling it that because it’s going to be hundreds of times better than the old Acrobat – and if you don’t believe me then just upgrade and see for yourself,” Adobe explained.

It’s been quite some time since the last release of Adobe Acrobat – it’s Acrobat XI, which shipped in October 2012 – so we’ve been eagerly awaiting to see what the next major version of this core product line would bring…

The Adobe “Document Cloud”? What does that mean? Is this the same brand of Acrobat toolset that we know and love, and use daily? Are there still Pro and Standard desktop tools, and perpetual licenses? Or is this a new type of web-based application or service that we can only use online, or via subscription?

Not to worry. Everything is as you want, only better. It looks like this long wait for Acrobat DC was actually worth it… This is Acrobat XII or 12, only raised to the next level.

It’s been a while now since Acrobat XI was released, and considering Adobe usually runs on two-year release schedules for this product, give or take, what does this imply for when Acrobat XII (Pro/Standard/Reader version 12) will be coming out?

Ordinarily, our best estimate would be simply to go with the release dates for the past few major revisions of Acrobat and then extrapolate.

It’s that time of year. Early each fall, Adobe launches a new version of Photoshop Elements, and this year is no exception… Last week the company introduced Photoshop Elements 13 (with brand new free trials to download), and one of the common upgrade questions we see is what’s new, what’s different, and what’s improved in version 13 compared to the previous Elements 12? Or more essentially, what are the key new features in PSE 13, versus PSE 12 or 11?

The bottom line is you probably want to know what’s changed since the last release (or two) – but how about a version-by-version, feature-by-feature table? You’ll find this down below (or take a shortcut here), but first let’s take a quick look at some of the major additions.

First off, on two things folks often ask about: Is Photoshop Elements 13 available a native 64-bit application on Windows (as Photoshop CC 2014 is), and does it offer improved 16-bit imaging function­ality compared to earlier versions? The answers are: PSE 13 is now available for the first time in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions for Windows systems (and continues as 64-bit-only for Mac), and 16 bits-per-pixel image support is only slightly better than in PSE 12 – meaning you can open 16-bit files, convert to 16-bit color depth in ACR, do basic edits, but there is still no 16-bit support for layers, many artistic filters, and so on.

When readers ask us, “What’s new in the Adobe CC 2014 release?” – they usually mean what’s been added in terms of product features and improvements compared to previous versions such as CC 2013 or CS6.

And for the most part, we’ve answered that question in our prior article here:

But there’s a larger picture as well – in terms of what’s going on with pricing and what’s included with the different Creative Cloud plans, and whether/how Adobe is keeping its promise to evolve and bring new innovation to CC subscribers. So we’re going to try to tackle that here.

[UPDATE (July 2015) – These still work to download updates for last year’s CC 2014 release… However we also now have direct links for the new CC 2015 product updates.]

Important! On this page you’ll find all the updates to CC 2014 (on Windows), since its initial launch in June 2014. If you need to install the full products themselves, then please see our CC 2014 download links first.

One of the main benefits of the Adobe CC 2014 release is receiving an ongoing stream of product updates at no extra cost… No longer do we have to wait 1-2 years for our tools to innovate and keep pace with evolving technologies; instead we get the latest and greatest features and enhance­ments as soon as they are ready.

[UPDATE (July 2015) – These still work to download updates for last year’s CC 2014 release… However we also now have direct links for the new CC 2015 product updates.]

Important! On this page you’ll find all the updates to CC 2014 (on Mac OS), since its initial launch in June 2014. If you need to install the full products themselves, then please see our CC 2014 download links first.

One of the main benefits of the Adobe CC 2014 release is receiving an ongoing stream of product updates at no extra cost… No longer do we have to wait 1-2 years for our tools to innovate and keep pace with evolving technologies; instead we get the latest and greatest features and enhance­ments as soon as they are ready.

BREAKING NEWS (New York) — Adobe has just announced the immediate availability of the all-new CC 2014 release, with hundreds of new features and enhancements across their creative product line (all tools) focusing on workflow, performance, and connectivity. In this fast-paced and rapidly evolving world of technology and platforms, CC 2014 succeeds the CC 2013 version which launched last June, which in turn replaced CS6 from 2012. So thinking in the old terms, this would roughly be equivalent to CS8 (and more).